Greave, Yorkshire?

[ThrelfallYorky]

Where I've found names that appear to have been "latinised" (and some of it seems a bit like French, too) in entries, they've often been Roman Catholic ones. Was this one?

[sstarr2008]

The 1672 Hearth Tax had no Goddards in Kirkburton but Holmfirth had a William Goddart and a William Godart, both paid for one hearth.

Stu

[Holnbridger]

The Greave in "Netherthong" is the correct one but it should be Meltham rather than Netherthong.  The two seem to have been separated during Elizabeth I's reign.  At the time of this marriage Netherthong was part of Honley chapelry (the Honley town book records the Honleyers taking legal advice to try to get Netherthong township to pay its share of the chapel upkeep) whilst Meltham had its own chapel.  Ellen's brother James was buried in Meltham & the register entry is quoted in a book on the history of Meltham.  The chapelry of Netherthong must have been shortlived in the C19th.  The vicar or Almondbury at the time split the huge parish into a series of smaller ones.  Chapelries were carved out of Holmfirth chapelry at Upperthong and  Holmbridge which then became parishes in their own right; boundaries seem to have been tweaked during this process.  It seems likely that the same process would have been followed at Netherthong and the source quoted would date from this interim stage.

Previously the family had lived in Upperthong for several generations.  There appear to have been 4 generations of William Goddard there the last of whom had at least 2 children born there but then moved to Greave.  Ellen was one of his children.  The widow of William II lived at Hillock http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=412228&Y=409284&A=Y&Z=115&ax=412133&ay=408672 Greave is the group of houses just under the caption "Manor House" to the north so it wasn't a great distance to move but it was to a different manor.

William IV died 1720:

In the name of God Amen I William Goddard of Greave in the Parish of Almondbury and the County of York Cloathier being sick in Body but of sound and perfect Memory praised by God therefore do here make & ordain this my Last Will and Testament. in Manner & Form following.
First and principally I commit my soul into the hands of Almighty God my Creator hoping through the Meritorious Death of Jesus Christ my Redeemer to  obtain full & free Remission of all my Sins.  And my Body I do Commit to the Earth to be buried at the discretion of my Executrix hereafter named.
And as for the personal Estate wherewith it hath pleased God of his Goodness to bless me my Will and Mind is And give and dispose of the Same in Manner & form following,
Imprimis my Will and Mind is that my Debts and Funeral Expences & Probate of this my Will be first paid out of my Whole Goods.
Item I give & bequeath unto John Goddard my Son my Great Bible and also one shilling in Silver to be paid unto him by my Executrix hereafter named
Item I given and bequeath unto Mary & Sarah my two daughters the wifes of James Oldham and Joshua Tinker either of them One Shilling.
And my Will and Mind is and I do hereby give and bequeath unto my aforefaid Sons in Law James Oldham & Joshua Tinker those my cloaths of Apparell which I am used to wear and also the cloathing of my son that is Lately deceased and the same to be divided equally betwixt them according to the discretion of my son John Goddard
And my Will & Mind is that Martha my Wife have the benefit of the farm and tenement wherein I live the residue of the Term yet unexpired and I give the same unto her
And as for all the rest Residue and Remainder of my Goods and Personal Estate whatsoever my Will and Mind is that the same be equally Divided amongst my three Younger Daughters Martha, Ellen, & Elizabeth, & Martha my Wife (Vizt) To Every one of them a fourth part thereof, And I do hereby Give the same unto them.
And I do hereby Ordain and appoint Martha my beloved Wife Sole Executrix of this my Last Will & Testament hereby revoking all other and former Will or Wills by me heretofore made
In Witness whereof I have hereunto put my Hand and Seal the twenty first day of October Anno Dmi 1720.
PS And That a Rideing Coate Late Joshua Goddard and now in the possession of Joshua Hirst is excepted out of the above bequeathed Cloathes and this postscript writt before the sealing thereof.
William Goddard his Mark and Seal, Sealed & Signed published & declared to be the Last Will & Testament of the abovesaid Testator in the sight and presence of us, John Woodhead, Timothy Malinson his Mark, Robert France

[sugarfizzle]

Holnbridger, Thanks very much for that.

First of all, a very warm welcome to Rootschat, a very informative post for your first one.

Can't find out anything online about William Goddard, or birth/baptisms of the children mentioned, including Ellin/Elenor/Ellen.  Can you enlighten me please?  I had thought I was as far back as I was going to get with this line, but apparently not!

Wonder why the older girls got a shilling apiece, and the younger ones a quarter share in his property.  Even the older girls husband's got more than they did themselves!  Perhaps a dowry had already been given fairly recently?  Pity there is no indication of the size of his estate - could be next to nothing, or quite substantial.

Regards,
Margaret

[josey]

A welcome from me too, Holnbridger. A very informative post, thank you.

Do you know where in Upperthong the Goddards lived?

[Holnbridger]

There is only one location for any of the Williams and that's the death of a widow (buried 5 Jun 1669) who, by my reckoning must have been the widow of William II.  She died at Hillock http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=412135&Y=408667&A=Y&Z=115 There was also an Oliver G who in 1662 was at Hill. 

According to George Redmonds the death of the widow was the first mention of Hillock & for a while I wondered if Hill had been the original location and Hillock (little Hill) was a newly coined name and some sort of pun on being the residence of little Will, the son of the older William.  However there's a map of the graveship of Holme reputed to be much older & that has a recognisable variation of Hillock so I think the name and settlement is much older.  Pity!

There is a William junior mentioned in the manorial roll of 1665.  From the timing I think this is William II and the implied William senior William I who would then have been the William senex (old man) buried 21 Jan 1674.  William II's death must have been between 1665 & 1669 but isn't recorded.  Events from the top end of the valley are badly recorded in Almondbury.  None of the baptisms, marriages or, apart from William I, burials of the Williams are recorded and of their children (exceptions below) I have only either the baptism or the burial and yet apart from the Williams and Oliver there were a few other adult Goddards for who I don't have a baptism.  Of their wives I don't have the death of William I's wife although I have a remarriage of William IV's.

William's I & II would have been the William Gs in the Hearth Tax.

I have the baptism of an illegitimate daughter Anne of William IV, baptised 14 Aug 1684, buried 01 Sep 1684.  I also have the baptisms of John 25 Jul 1687 and Sarah 16 Sep 1694, the latter at Holmfirth and the former at a chapel which I take to have been Holmfirth.  I have nothing for the other children.

The married children, daughters as well as son John, would all have had their children's portions on marriage.  This, and a token bequest, was the custom.  It's clear that William was making provision for his widow and the unmarried children.  A younger son Joseph was buried in Meltham 24 ?Aug 1720.  Joseph Hughes' History of Meltham quotes a burial entry in the Meltham chapel register:
1720.  Josephus f: Willi Goddard de Greave sep. 24 o
[month not given but the next entry is for 25th August]
Dat veniam Corvis, Vexat censura Columbas
(“The censors forgive the crows and harasses the doves” Juvenal.  The sense seems to be that Joseph's death was unjust.)

I note that I have Joshua in the transcript of the will.  I'll have to go back & check that but it's undoubtedly the same son.  What I really want to know is what happened to the Bible in the will.

We know that daughter Martha subsequently married James Dearnley on 10 Jun 1724 as his second wife (Mark Dearnley has a good deal about this James D on his site at familytree.dearnley.com - any Dearnley researchers are strongly recommended to contact Mark).  In James's will she was left three cottages at Wickens in Upperthong which was then to descend to a son whose baptism we don't have but who we take to be a son of that marriage.  A row of cottages on Dean Road at Upper Wickens are close to Hillock & although there are now more than 3 there appears to be a central block of 3.  As James D's known property interests were on the other side of the valley it appears likely that these cottages may have formed part of the marriage portion in which case it seems as if the move to Greave didn't end the Upperthong connection.

[Holnbridger]

As I've indicated we do seem to have 4 generations of William G in Upperthong.  William II is referred to as junior in a manorial roll & William IV in the PR (IIRC at the baptism of his illegitimate daughter) so I infer that Williams I & II and III & IV are father/son pairs.  II & III may well be but so far there's no direct indication.

In the C16th PRs of Almobdbury there are a few mentions of Almondbury girls marrying Goddards or having illegitimate Goddard children but no indication of Goddards in the parish.  However there was a Christopher Goddard mentioned in a document of 1425 which was a pre-marital settlement listing the inhabitants of Emley & Skelmanthorpe.  Emley was a sub-manor of Wakefield & there were a few mentions of Goddards in Emley in the published C16th MRs but, sadly, not in the single published C15th MR.  I conclude that for at least 200 years there were Goddards in Emley (Emley PRs only start c1600 & the last baptised Goddard, Matthew, seems to have been buried in Kirkburton).

To be continued

[Holnbridger]

Sorry about the break.  To continue.
We have Goddards in Emley in the c15th & C16th who may be the Goddards who appear occasionally in the Almondbury & Kirkburton PRs. 

During the C16th they start to become resident in the parishes served by Holmfirth chapelry.  Hugh married Alice Bray at Kirkburton in 1579 & had children baptised there, Margaret in 1581 (married John Heliwell in Almondbury in 1605) & John in 1588.  Alice might have been the Alice G who married George Beaumont in Kirkburton in 1952.

A Thomas G had various children baptised in Kirkburton between 1584 & 1596.  The arrival of these two families in Kirkburton parish suggests that they may have been brothers, sons of a Goddard who had had children in Emley and then settled in Kirkburton.

There are several Goddards having families in Kirkburton in the early C17th a couple of whom fit in date with sons of Thomas above.  There is, however, no sign of the William line.  However the PRs for Kirkburton are in a poor condition for the early decades of the C17th and transcripts are dependent on BTs half of which are missing.  It's entirely possible that William I's father could have married, had William I baptised, William I married and William II baptised at this time without records of any of these events surviving.  What's more John, son of Hugh, would fit nicely with such a sequence.  Whether or not this particular line was the origin of the Williams it seems likely that the Emley family would have been ancestral to them.

Can we roll back from Emley?  Possibly.  Yorks Arch Soc have a collection of documents, the Bradfer-Lawrence collection accessible via TNA which includes a series of documents from Snaith parish.  These document the emergence of a Godard family in Cowick just before 1300 starting from MD335/5/108 (Google is your friend; note that "de Mora" means "of the moor" and that would be Cowick Moor).  The last of these dates from 1351.

In the 1360s there was a William Goddard around Rotherham (try DD/FJ/1/209/6, one of the Foljambe papers for one document) and in the 1379 subsidy roll (this was the Poll Tax that prompted the Peasant's Revolt) the only male Goddard in the West Riding was a William Goddard who I take to have been a son of the William in the Foljambe papers.  Oddly enough there were no Goddards in Snaith but then there is no mention of anyone in Cowick; perhaps nobody was at home when the tax collectors arrived or possibly the Goddard family had already moved down the Humber to Hull.  The Rotherham family was sufficiently close in time and place to the Cowick family to suggest that it was an off-shoot.

In the early C15th there was a Goddard family in Sheffield and, as we have seen, in Emley by 1425.  These are a generation or two later than William in 1379.  Sheffield is sufficiently close to Rotherham for us not to be surprised that one of William's children or grandchildren might have moved there but what about Emley?  As it happens the Fitzwilliams who were lords of Emley also had interests around Rotherham; they held Emley itself from the manor of Wakefield but they were also lords of Sprotborough, I think directly from the crown.  Sprotborough PRs, like Emley, only date from c1600 & there's a Goddard in an early record there.  It seems entirely possible that the Fitzwilliams transplanted one of their tenants from one of their manors to another.

This is more of a crumb trail than a solid genealogical record and its unlikely that it could ever be properly tested.  However, I feel that in essence it's likely to be the best hypothesis we can get for the origins of the Holme Valley Goddards.

[sugarfizzle]

I'm afraid you have completely lost me!!

Margaret